SAGES NEWS

W ear SAGES Participant,

Our warmest welcome to our new SAGES participants and thank you to all of you who have been participating in the SAGES study for a while. We are so grateful to all of you for donating your time to the study.

We just celebrated the enrollment of our 200th SAGES participant with a luncheon for our dedicated team. Please check out the picture below. Do you recognize anyone?

For this newsletter, we interviewed two of our wonderful interviewers: Sarah Dowal and Ali Kuczmarska. We also introduce you to Dr. Richard Jones, who, together with his team, organizes and analyzes all of your valuable answers. Enjoy his article about “Brain Reserve - What Is It?”

Would you be interested in sharing some of your experiences as a SAGES par-ticipant? We would love to hear from you and we will put your comments (without names) in a future newsletters. Please call us at 617-971-5390 or write us at: [email protected] We look forward to hearing from you.

With best wishes,

Eva M. Schmitt, PhD — SAGES Study Director

Welcome to the 3rd Issue!

I n s i d e t h i s i s s u e :

Message from the Director

1

Staff Profiles

2- 4

Brain Reserve

5

Enrollment Update

6

SAGES NEWSSAGES NEWS N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 1 I s s u e 3

| http://www.hebrewseniorlife.org/sages | 1200 Centre Street, Boston, MA 02131 | phone 617.971.5390

Created by:

Meaghan Fox

Back row from left to right: Cyrus Kosar, Dr. Selywn Rogers, Alden Gross, Dr. Rich Jones, Kerry Palihnich, Dr. Ed Marcantonio, Nina O’Brien. Middle Row from left to right: Dr. Sharon Inouye, Daniel Habtemariam, Sarah Dowal, Ali Kuczmarska, Dr. Eva Schmitt, Dr. Guoquan Xu, Jacqui Yee. Front row from left to right: Jackie Gallagher, Meaghan Fox, Ariel Hodara

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Sarah is a Clinical Research Associate on the SAGES study but has been working for Dr. Inouye at the Aging Brain Center since 2005. She has her B.A. in Psychology from Wheaton College and her Master's in Social Work (MSW) from BU where she will be getting her Mas-ter's in Public Health (MPH) in May 2012.

Meaghan: What is your favorite part of your job?

Sarah: My favorite part of this job is being able to meet and interact with so many partici-pants. Now that I have been working on the study for over a year, I feel I have gotten to know a lot of our participants, and it is wonderful to see them and hear how they are doing.

Meaghan: What do you find most challenging about the SAGES study?

Sarah: One of the biggest challenges is dealing with Boston traffic! As a study interviewer we travel to many towns in a 40 mile radius of Boston, and it can be difficult to navigate the roads! However, I do get the opportunity to see a lot of lovely towns, so it can also be a positive aspect too.

Meaghan: What would you tell someone who is thinking about par-ticipating in the study?

Sarah: I would tell them that they should definitely do it because eve-ryone who works on this study is so kind, generous, and dedicated. It will be a great experience for them, and they will have the chance to improve care for others in the future.

Meaghan: How would someone describe you? What do you do when you aren't working?/ What are some of your hobbies outside of work?

Sarah: I had a participant tell me "you are efficient and no-nonsense and you have a good way about you." I would say that is pretty accurate! I

have been told I am a warm person with a good sense of humor. Outside of work I like to go hiking, try new restaurants, walk around the city,

and play games with my 4 year old niece.

Profile: Sarah Dowal


Meaghan: What are you reading right now?

Sarah: I am reading "In a Sunburned Country" by Bill Bryson. I have a friend who lives in Australia and this book is inspiring me to take a trip to visit her!

Meaghan: What is your proudest moment and why?

Sarah: My proudest moment was graduating with my Master's in Social Work. I learned so much during my time in graduate school, and it was a great achievement.

Meaghan: What is your favorite place in the world and why?

Sarah: One of my favorite places in the world is Ellis Landing beach on Cape Cod. My sisters and I have some great summer memories there, and we always enjoy going back. This summer we had the opportunity to bring my niece out walking on the Brewster flats, and it was wonderful to see

her having just as much fun as we did when we were little!

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Ali is a Clinical Research Assistant on the SAGES study. She attended Harvard College and graduated in May 2010 where she received a Bachelors degree in Psychology in the Social and Cognitive Neuroscience Track and a Spanish Language Citation. Ali plans to start medical school in the near future.

Meaghan: What is your job?

Ali: I tend to work with patients during the beginning portion of the study, from the first interview through the one month interview. I interview participants both in their homes and in the hospital and draw blood whenever necessary.


Ali: My job as a whole is fantastic, but my favorite part is working with you, the participants. I never cease to be amazed at how welcoming people are when I come to their home and the wonderful conversations that I have had with many of you.

Meaghan: Tell me how you first got involved with SAGES...

Ali: During college, I took a course called “Biology of Aging” where I learned about the changes the body un-dergoes as we get older. Needless to say, I was interested. I heard about the SAGES study and knew that it would be a perfect fit for me because not only would I learn a lot, but also because it would prepare me for a career in medicine.

Profile: Aleksandra Kuczmarska

Meaghan: What do you wish other people knew about the SAGES study?

Ali: I hope that you, the participants, know that the study, and really scientific advancement, is impossible without you. We very much appreciate everything that you contribute to the study and thus try to make everything as convenient as possible. I spend a significant amount of time during my job trying to find better and easier way to do things to minimize the hardship that we place on you during the study. Participating in a study is a self-less act that should be commended.

Meaghan: How would someone describe you?

Ali: I think (and hope!) that people would describe me as the person that they would always feel comfort-able coming to talk to. Also, I think people would say that I have found a good balance of silliness and pro-fessionalism in my job—you should never take yourself too seriously!

Meaghan: What do you do when you aren't working?/ What are some of your hobbies outside of work?

Ali: I love to cook. I host themed cooking parties where everyone creates a dish related to that theme. Also, I am a ballroom dancer, although I have had less time to pursue this passion now than I did in college.

Meaghan: What might someone be surprised to know about you?

Ali: People would be surprised to know that I have climbed Mt. Fuji in Japan.

Meaghan: Who is your favorite musician and why?

Ali: I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to have a favorite musician, but I would say at the moment, I am most often listening to Michael Buble, who to me is a modern-day Frank Sinatra. He has an amazing set of

vocal chords!

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Behind the Scenes: An Interview with Rich Jones, PhD

P a g e 4

Rich studied Psychiatric Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Psychiatric Epidemiology is the study of mental health in populations. He is inter-ested in the social and environmental contexts that help people live confidently and inde-pendently throughout life.

Meaghan: What is your job?

Rich: I am an Epidemiologist. Epidemiologists study disease and disability in populations. My research is on Mental Health and Aging. I design stud-ies, use statistical tools to pour over data and come to conclusions about how people think and feel as they age, and what factors lead to better or worse development with aging.


Rich: I love discovering new things and solving puzzles.

Meaghan: Tell me how you first got involved with SAGES . . .

Rich: The SAGES Principal Investigator, Professor Sharon Inouye, asked me if I might want to study brain reserve. Brain Reserve (see article in this newsletter) is this idea that some people might be resistant to cognitive disability due to a lifetime of accumulation of experiences, be-haviors, and ways of thinking. Brain Reserve is a popular idea in the area of Alzheimer’s Disease research, but it had never been studied in the context of thinking and recovery after surgery. I jumped at the chance. My involvement gives me an opportunity to solve a puzzle that no one has even ever cracked open the box on before.

Meaghan: What's your fondest/favorite memory from working with the SAGES study?

Rich: The best thing about working with the SAGES study is the level of enthusiasm and commit-ment I see from everyone involved with the study. Our leader, Sharon Inouye, has managed to generate a sense of commitment and engagement at all levels of our team. It’s an admirable leadership skill.

Meaghan: What do you wish other people knew about the SAGES study?

Rich: The SAGES study is poised to make major contributions to our understanding of a broad range of issues regarding aging and physical and mental health. The lead investigators have specified a range of specific research questions, but the potential application of the resource that is being generated far surpasses those stated goals. And the core of that resource is the generous commitment of time and energy on behalf of the SAGES research participants. Without the gift of time, patience, and answers to our endless questioning, we would not be able to do our work and advance knowledge on healthy aging.

Meaghan: What are you reading right now?

Rich: I only read technical scientific material. Even for fun. My wife still teases me for bringing books on Calculus on our honeymoon. To be fair, I also brought along a biography the first men-

(Continued on page 6) S A G E S N E W S


P a g e 5 I s s u e 3

You won’t find the answer to this question in this box. But the answer to that question is one of the things we are studying in the SAGES study. If you’ve heard the phrase “use it or lose it”, then you’ve got most of the bottom line of the idea behind brain reserve. Brain reserve (sometimes called cognitive reserve) is the idea that some people may be unaffected by in-jury to their brains. For example, take two people who suffer an equal amount of brain in-jury, and one person shows symptoms of that brain injury and the other does not. We say the person who does not show symptoms has brain reserve. But beyond that, we don’t know much about what brain reserve is, if it is even a real thing, or if there are things that a per-son can do to build it up and maintain brain health throughout life.

It could be that people with more brain in their heads are protected from brain injury. Or it could be that people who have developed flexible systems for thinking and solv-ing problems have more adaptable brains. Or it could be that people with better overall physical health, especially better blood circulation to the head, have more adjust-able brains. The science behind measuring the amount of brain injury and cognitive and behavioral consequences of brain injury is not precise. That means that not all of the association between brain injury and behavioral and cog-nitive symptoms will be accounted for in statistical analy-sis. The part that is left over may bear some connection with lifetime experience, physical traits, or social activi-ties, but the relationship is non-causal.

Human brains are wired to detect patterns and draw causal conclusions. This helps us learn about the world when we are babies, and it helps magicians fool us with tricks. The role of science is to be more like a baby and learn about the world, while being aware of and watch-ing out for the magician trying to fool us. A recent Met Life insurance poll reported that next to cancer, adults worry about cognitive decline more than any other disease. There is a huge industry built around the idea of brain fitness: about $300M in 2009. That’s money out of people’s pockets and the funds of care providers. So the idea that people can improve their brain health through mental and physical exercise is really important to people, to public health, and to everyone’s bottom line. Despite the public’s interest, and the importance to public health, most of the research on reserve is secondary in nature. By that I mean, it is re-search done with data collected in studies to answer a different question. So what data are collected are rarely ideal for answering critical research questions about reserve. SAGES is different, because we designed the study from the ground up to answer several research questions, but included among these was “what is” and “what effect might it have” regarding brain reserve.

Brain Reserve—What is it?

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tal health Epidemiologist, Edward Jarvis, who lived and worked right here in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 19th Century.

Meaghan: What is your proudest moment and why?

Rich: My proudest moments are when I see my children being kind, generous and

considerate towards others. Thankfully, I have many of these moments in mind.

Meaghan: What is your favorite music and why?

Rich: I like all kinds of music. My father was a classical musician, and I grew up around classical music, but couldn’t have escaped being a teenager and a big fan of rock music.

Meaghan: What is your favorite place in the world and why?

Rich: Hale Reservation in Westwood, in the winter. Guinness (my dog) and I walk the trails on the weekends. It’s quiet. No computers, books, scientific papers. Just crisp air and the crunching snow and eerie sounds from the ice cover over Hale pond.

(Continued from page 4)

Total

Number

SAGES Total

Enrollment

244

SAGES MRI

Enrollment

59

Progress


S A G E S N E W S

We would love to

hear from you and your experience with SAGES. Please call us at

617-971-5390 or email [email protected]

Cyrus Kosar, Daniel Habtemariam, Alden Gross

The Data Team

Dr. Selwyn Rogers, Dr. Sharon Inouye,

Dr. Ed Marcantonio

Study Investigators

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Documents

SAGES NEWS